Criminal Law & Identity Politics

James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter

Hate Crimes

Criminal Law & Identity Politics

James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter

Description

In the early 1980s, a new category of crime appeared in the criminal law lexicon. In response to concerted advocacy-group lobbying, Congress and many state legislatures passed a wave of "hate crime" laws requiring the collection of statistics on, and enhancing the punishment for, crimes motivated by certain prejudices. This book places the evolution of the hate crime concept in socio-legal perspective. James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter adopt a skeptical if not critical stance, maintaining that legal definitions of hate crime are riddled with ambiguity and subjectivity. No matter how hate crime is defined, and despite an apparent media consensus to the contrary, the authors find no evidence to support the claim that the United States is experiencing a hate crime
epidemic--instead, they cast doubt on whether the number of hate crimes is even increasing. The authors further assert that, while the federal effort to establish a reliable hate crime accounting system has failed, data collected for this purpose have led to widespread misinterpretation of the state of intergroup relations in this country.

The book contends that hate crime as a socio-legal category represents the elaboration of an identity politics now manifesting itself in many areas of the law. But the attempt to apply the anti-discrimination paradigm to criminal law generates problems and anomalies. For one thing, members of minority groups are frequently hate crime perpetrators. Moreover, the underlying conduct prohibited by hate crime law is already subject to criminal
punishment. Jacobs and Potter question whether hate crimes are worse or more serious than similar crimes attributable to other anti-social motivations. They also argue that the effort to single out hate crime for greater punishment is, in effect, an effort to punish some offenders more seriously simply because of their beliefs, opinions, or values, thus implicating the First Amendment.

Advancing a provocative argument in clear and persuasive terms, Jacobs and Potter show how the recriminalization of hate crime has little (if any) value with respect to law enforcement or criminal justice. Indeed, enforcement of such laws may exacerbate intergroup tensions rather than eradicate prejudice.

Hate Crimes

Criminal Law & Identity Politics

James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter

Author Information

James B. Jacobs, Director of New York University's Center for Research in Crime and Justice, is Professor of Law at the NYU School of Law. Kimberly Potter, formerly a Senior Research Fellow at NYU's Center for Research in Crime and Justice, is now in private law practice in Bronxville, NY.

Hate Crimes

Criminal Law & Identity Politics

James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter

Reviews and Awards

"At last, a book that thinks clearly and carefully about laws that have been too close to motherhood and apple pie to get the scrutiny they need. Hate Crimes shines with the authors' passion for justice, and its meticulously argued verdict ought to make even the staunchest supporters of hate-crimes laws think twice. This will--or should--be a touchstone for future debate."--Jonathan Rauch, author of Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought

"Activists, pundits, and legislators who champion 'hate crime' laws will be hard-put to answer this stunning, caring book. Jacobs and Potter show how such laws may advance their sponsors' political status and moral self-importance yet diminish tolerance and justice. This definitive analysis will change the debate--and, let us hope, a sorry miscarriage of the law."--Jim Sleeper, author of Liberal Racism and The Closest of Strangers

"This book brings careful scrutiny and sociological wisdom to a legal innovation that desperately needs it. The debate over hate crimes will never be the same."--Peter Schuck, Yale Law School

"Jacobs and Potter rigorously and provocatively suggest that criminalizing prejudice, motivated by symbolic politics and moral outrage, may not be sensible criminal justice policy and, indeed, may worsen problems criminalization seeks to remedy. Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics is challenging and rewarding reading."--Stephen J. Morse, University of Pennsylvania Law School and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

"This slim, well-written volume does the legal heavy lifting of many books five times its size...an essential guide to the origin, politics, and enforcement of hate crime laws."--The New York Times Book Review